A sandplain is an area where the soil is sand deposited from elsewhere by processes such as wind or ocean, rather than direct weathering of
bedrock.
Sandplains are quite flat. There may be
dune systems, and given time and the right conditions these may form
eolianite
Eolianite or aeolianite is any rock formed by the lithification of sediment deposited by aeolian processes; that is, the wind. In common use, however, the term refers specifically to the most common form of eolianite: coastal limestone consisting ...
ridges, but other than that there is little to give a sandplain any
topographical
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
character.
Inland sandplains are often extremely infertile, because the sand is often low in nutrients when deposited, plus the good drainage means any nutrients are rapidly
leached away.
Coastal sandplains in
intertidal zones like those seen in the
Wadden Sea in western Europe for example, are wet with nutrients added continuously, so they can often support a very rich and important fauna of birds, worms,
mussels, etc..
In North America, sandplains are often vegetated by
pine barrens
Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pineland areas occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Perhaps the most well known pine-barre ...
. In Western Australia,
kwongan
Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as
Kwongan has replaced other terms applied by European botanists such as ...
is the dominant vegetation.
See also
*
Outwash plain
An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and c ...
External links
Sand Plains/Sand Sheets(U.S. Army Geospatial Center)
Geological processes
Geography terminology
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